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Comment by n0us | Hacker News Reader

I think his status as a single child-free person goes understated in this article. It takes a special kind of husband/wife to be okay with someone who works this hard and not having to juggle a home life frees up his schedule to a huge degree. I can imagine working hard 18hr days while still in my 30s, but I cannot imagine doing that while maintaining a marriage and taking care of a kid or two. The guy is a billionaire so I guess he could pay for full time staff to help out but that isn't really the same as being there in person.

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Yup. And I remember very clearly that day when it was going to be my career or my family, and I chose my family. I did so because more and more people I knew were getting more and more stressed at how pissed off their spouse was or that they never saw their kids. A number of them got divorced and could only see their children on every other weekend.

It will be interesting when he is 60 if he feels like he made the right choices.

Plenty of executives work long hours. In fact I imagine most do. I can't find it, but I remember reading where Scott McNealy talked about his dad working long hours as an executive at GM.

Elon Musk has 5 kids, as another example.

Except Elon only gets the kids for only half the time (shares custody with his ex-wife) and has a current wife and nannies taking care of the kids when he has them. He mentioned in videos that he doesn't get to spend that much time with his kids.

Just because it's possible for executives to work long hours, it doesn't mean it's healthy for their family life to.

Why does one have 5 kids if there's little intention* to spend time with them? Surely he's bright enough to grok birth control?

*I'm not a believer in "doesn't get", rather it's "doesn't want".

Maybe he was more interested in spending time with their mothers than with the kids... Very few parents prioritize their kids before themselves even if many feel that is what they one is supposed to do.

I think it very much depends on how much interaction as a father you want to have with your kids.

If you want to be cooking some nice meals for them, coaching sports, attending events, assisting with homework, tucking into bed, dealing with illness, prepping for holidays, having fun together, taking vacations, etc. then you have to devote a substantial amount of time. I suspect that most of these busy CEO dads don't spend all that much time doing these things.

You only have so much time in the day and available time that corresponds to the time the child is available and active is in very short supply.

Ah, you hit it on the head. My neighborhood is full of these types, and that's the catch - you can keep your family together, but, just like happened to me standing at the ATM yesterday, the kids ride by on their hoverboards and you hear one of them telling the other how their dad had to go in to work (again) today - just like he always has to on Christmas.

Exactly. Coming home after the kids and wife are in bed is not the same as coming home to your family.

I hear you, I really do, but plenty of guys in finance and trading work these hours and are expected to maintain regular families.

My experience growing up in New York and going to school with lots of kids of fathers in finance was very much the opposite. There was zero expectation that they maintain regular families.

Haha touche

I largely agree with this, but would add that traders (and even investment bankers in their 30s/40s) will work very little on the weekend. Certainly no senior trader is in the office.

The article does state his status. In any case, not everyone wants to have a spouse and/or children.

I'm not sure anyone here said that everyone should be married with kids.

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